Untitled (Nude behind screen), c1930s/printed later

From Portfolio No. 4, The Female Form

Signed and dated in pencil on image lower right, “Max Dupain ’30’s”

Provenance
Dupain Estate
Rex Dupain, the artist’s son Private collection, Sydney

Image size: 43.5 × 39.5 cm

Framed size: 68.1 x 62.6 cm

Sister Artwork
An example of this work is held in the Art Gallery of South Australia collection, gifted by Edron Pty Ltd in 1995 through the auspices of Alistair McAlpine.

This work is from Dupain’s Portfolio No.4, The female form, a series of nude studies produced in the 1930s. The female nude was a central subject for Dupain during this period, informed by vitalist and naturalist theories, his interpretations of surrealism and his studies of painting. The screen in this image creates an interplay of concealment and revelation, a device Dupain employed to explore abstract form and the sculptural qualities of the human body. The work reflects the influence of European modernism on his practice, particularly the surrealist photography of Man Ray, whom Dupain greatly admired.